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lifted up above Moses…and loftier than the ministering angels” (2:571; see
also 2:621). Isaiah 53:5 is applied to the sufferings of “King Messiah” (2:620).
Michael Brown, a Messianic scholar, writes: “It behooves us to
show our Jewish people how much Jesus is like them, the circle within
the circle of Isaiah 53.”1 He then points to another ancient Jewish book
called the Zohar:
“the Messiah enters the Hall of the Sons of Illness and summons
all the diseases and all the pains and all the sufferings of Israel that
they should come upon him, and all of them come upon him. And
would he not thus bring ease to Israel and take their sufferings
upon himself, no man could endure the sufferings Israel has to
undergo because they neglected the Torah.”
How true it is that, “had not the Messiah taken our place, suffering
on our behalf, we would have perished long ago.”2
Messiah’s Career as a Servant
Jesus’ life was marked by servanthood. John Gill, a theologian
and pastor (1667-1771), wrote this about Jesus’ servant stature: “In
the fullness of time he was sent and came not to be ministered to, as
a monarch, but to minister as a servant under the law. His infancy in
Egypt, where the Israelites were enslaved, was an emblem of that servile
state he was come into, and very early he declared that he must be about
his Father’s business.”3
Our Messiah also called us to be servants, stating: “Not so with you.
Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,
and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of
Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many.” (Matt. 20:26-28). Hanukkah is a great time (just like
Christmas!) to remember what our Messiah did for us – the ultimate
sacrifice, giving His life for our eternal communion with the Father.
1 Brown, Michael, “Jewish Interpretations of Isaiah 53” in Bock, D. L., & Glaser, M. (2012). The Gospel
according to Isaiah 53: encountering the suffering servant in Jewish and Christian theology (p. 80-81).
Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic & Professional
2 Raphael Patai, (1979) The Messiah Texts (p 116) Detroit: Wayne State University Press as quoted in
Brown, Michael, “Jewish Interpretations of Isaiah 53”
3 Adapted by www.jesus.org from A Body of Doctrinal Divinity, Book 5, Chapter 3, by John Gill.